Under normal circumstances, the Saints would probably blitz Dallas by two TDs. This was a typically unpredictable Thursday night stage. At home with the football Gods on their side, Dallas came up with its biggest win of the year.

Credit Dallas’ defense with making some big plays, but also credit the referees who missed some obvious infractions by Dallas that affected the outcome of the game and killed any momentum the Saints were gaining. Just ask Alvin Kamara and his face.

Alvin Kamara needed the smelling salts after being hit with the crown of Jaylon Smith’s helmet and no penalty. I thought the league wanted these hits out of the game? #NFL #TNFonFOX #Cowboys #NOvsDAL https://t.co/4b1sVUXafN

Brees playing the worst game of his career didn’t hurt the Cowboys chances either.

He finished 18 of 28 passing for 127 yards with one touchdown and one interception. His 71.6 passer rating is the lowest he’s had in a game since 2016. He opened a game with four consecutive incompletions for the first time in his 18-season career.

Even the masterful Sean Payton was off his game. He burned his two red flags early for some reason and was unable to challenge when the referees messed up again, awarding Dallas receiver, Cole Beasley, a first down when his knee was clearly down, well short of the marker.

The ref’s first call was a first down. However after the replay Cole Beasley was short. The only problem though.. Sean Payton was out of challenges and couldn’t do anything about it and this play wasn’t reviewable. https://t.co/EkUeBAvXps

It was a perfect storm for Dallas and a toe snub for the Saints who were steamrolling opponents and entered Thursday’s game with a 10-1 record. That kind of pace wasn’t going to last. Eventually, Brees was going to be human and the Saints offense was going to produce a clunker. To the benefit of the inconsistent Dallas Cowboys, that moment came last night.

JR Gamble joined The Shadow League in 2012. The Deputy Editor and Senior Writer is in his 23rd year of covering sports and culture professionally. He has covered a wide variety of major sports and entertainment topics across different mediums, including radio, magazines and national TV.

His passion is baseball, the culturing of baseball and preserving and documenting the historically-impactful accomplishments and contributions of African-Americans in baseball.